The first kind of suffering, the immediate pain, we can’t give up. There is a misunderstanding when we think that we can, that life should not ever hurt. That we can love without hurt. A worse misunderstanding is when we think that other people are somehow encroaching on our skillful non-suffering state, and if we were to just get rid of them, all would be well.

My own first intimations of feeling awakened, unimpeded, not separate from everything else around me, not suffering, were not associated with any particular religious practice. They were the background state of my childhood, a kind of default setting, which I was jump-started out of at every turn by the demands of the actual other people around me. (Fertile ground for the mistaken belief that it’s other people who inflict suffering!)

I broadly characterize New Age spirituality as having at its core the desire to give up suffering and be one with some larger, brighter, all-powerful energy. In this worldview the basic nature of things is unlimited goodness, and all we need to do is find a way of “plugging in.” Once we recognize our true nature, everything falls into place: the work of our dreams, abundance, health and true love all arrive.

There is a crossover here with the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions of Buddhism (including Zen). These traditions all rest on the concept of Buddha-nature, which is inherently wise and compassionate. Seeing things this way is a simple (but not easy) matter of dropping illusions. Once our illusions, the most persistent of which is that of a separate self, are dropped, we live unimpeded, awakened.

This New Age/Mahayana crossover point can be, I think, misleading. In fact, the two models have quite different foundations, and those foundations matter.

Where do I find a firm foundation when I’m suffering from physical pain, or the pain of feeling abandoned, when I’m seeing injustice, violence and cruelty, or seeing those I love ill and in pain?

This is where for me the New Age philosophy falls short. After it welcomes me in with open arms and understanding, I feel it turns judgmental on me. It tells me that if I were only a little more evolved, I would not be in this situation. If I were doing the right things, the higher power, or energy, would work for me better, would love me more.

While the explicit message is that of unconditional love, it’s a bit like parents saying the “right” things about always loving you, no matter what you do. We can take those words and remember them as a comforting theory. But in practice, we are perfectly aware of what we need to do, or not do, to “get” love.

It seems to work the same way with the higher powers—if you are humble enough, pure enough, if you pray enough, or in the right way, you will be granted deliverance from the blockages that are holding you back. If you pray for others, they will receive blessings. Your asking makes a difference. Why should it? Why should some people be blessed and helped—the popular people, let’s say, who get the most votes—and not others?

This assumes a system where the universe can be manipulated, where you can persuade the higher power, where it can be swayed into giving some people preferential treatment, according to the skills/efforts/quality they, or those praying for them, have.

And this is where, for me, Buddhist practices come into their own. Of course you’re suffering, they say. That’s not an inconvenience; it is the heart of it all. We practice with it, not because the suffering is wrong, but because it is.

The practice is not to judge. Thich Nhat Hanh puts it simply:

“Don’t discriminate.”

Don’t discriminate between the feelings of pleasure and pain. One is not worth more than the other.

Don’t judge yourself for feeling bad. That arises, like everything else. You can’t “give it up” to a higher power to have it taken away. In fact, it is in your power to react to it skillfully.

In this non-discrimination are wisdom, freedom and clear space. In this wisdom, where we know in our guts, not just in our heads, that we are not separate, we can act against injustice. Indeed, we must, because there is no higher power that might dispense favors if we ask nicely enough.

Our goal shouldn’t be manipulating the world. Limited results can always be gotten from manipulating, but the spirit of manipulation is not one which works on the deepest level. On the deepest level, we are not separate and there’s nothing to manipulate, so all the strength we need is there for the taking.

We aren’t separate when we are suffering, either. It’s not a question of being cast out. Everyone is suffering. It’s not morally wrong; it is all allowed, and it will always be here. Not dividing the darkness from the light, not discriminating, but being with things as they are, gives us access to the space of wisdom and interconnection that is always here too.

It sounds like a solemn thing, but this space arises when we laugh at a terrible situation just as often as it does when we earnestly try to be mindful. It arises, because it is true. There is no need to put it “up there” and then ask for help.

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Sarah, I couldn't agree more with everything you said. I found "Don’t judge yourself for feeling bad. That arises, like everything else. You can’t “give it up” to a higher power to have it taken away. In fact, it is in your power to react to it skillfully" to be a powerful reminder. Thank you for sharing!

When Buddhists blog or write books, particularly in the well defined school of vajrayana, I am not sure why they do it. 99% are not qualified to teach and the manner in which the vajrayana is discussed is traditionally outside the bounds of protocol which 99% of the time creates more confusion and completely turns the teaching into something which is unrecognizable. Your thesis of "Do not discriminate", in the way you have presented it, should not have been discussed in reference to mahayana/vajrayana because it only serves to confuse. "Discriminating Awareness" in the vajrayana is required to become realized. The way in which you have interpreted "do not discriminate" has no place in the vajrayana. The result, as interpreted by the uninitiated i fear, would be a dull mind which is trying to mush all phenomena together in an intellectual manner so as to not "discriminate". Similar to the intellectualization of "equanimity".

Hi Padma, thanks very much for your input and for taking the time to share it. I apologise if I have created confusion or misrepresented a tradition, it was not my intention. I practice meditation (not in the vajrayana tradition) but hope I have not set myself up as a Buddhist teacher or expert. I try to share what I discover in my life/work, what brings me clarity, in the hope that it may sometimes bring clarity to others. When I write here of not discriminating, I do not mean mushing things together so they lose their clarity. I am using the word discriminate in the everyday sense of holding a prejudice. By not discriminating, I mean not treating our uncomfortable feelings as if they were beyond the pale, not allowed, just because they hurt. That is so common, and creates so much extra suffering…

The power of the Mahayana and Vajrayana comes first in the teacher then the method. Particularly in Vajrayana there is method which breaks down the intellectualzation beyond "discussion" and creates the circumstances for realization. Telling the general public to "not discriminate" between good and bad is confusing and not very skillful. If your therapy is based on vajrayana then I would say that you should take a sincere deeper look at what you are doing.

hi again, just to make it clear that my therapy is not based on any school of Buddhism, it's humanistic therapy.

I agree that the practice, whether it be buddhism or therapy, is what creates the circumstances for all kinds of constructive moving forward, – not intellectualisation of problems. I sincerely hope i haven't come across as telling people what to do. I have repeatedly experienced that not judging ourselves for having both good and bad things arising inside us is the first step to a way forward, and my intention is to share that experience…

Hi Sarah, Very interesting. In my perspective, most of suffering we carry has nothing to do with the present. It is mostly because of the dysfunction from the cultures we found ourselves in. Growing up, most of us have been told, what to feel, think, and act. We have been inhibited from allowing to use our minds fully. When you are told repeatly, not to feel, to be good, you are bad, etc… basically, you can't be you, it is very confusing to a young one who's mind is vulnerable to these kinds of hurts. Most of what we now feel, is old feelings that never got felt. We all have a backlog of old feelings we need to release. Unless you are a 10 year old, alone, taking care of yourself, living in Afganishan, you are not suffering. So, until we can figure out, how stop mistreating our children, and see them as intelligent and caring human beings, we will continue to infect them with our distresses we inherited from our parents, and pass on the suffeing to them. No reason for us to suffer, ever. Life was meant to be enjoyed!

I was raised in Catholicism, with its message that suffering is good for you. "God sends suffering to those he loves." "Less time in purgatory," is how my grandmother explained it. So suffering was glorified, and even connected to the passion of Christ. For me, alas, suffering was a bad habit. I don't mean acute suffering, from which no human being is exempt. I mean brooding and making the wounds of the past bleed again. Alas, because of the way memory works, twenty years ago becomes now — or maybe it's just my memory, which doesn't seem to have a past tense. So my great challenge in life was to overcome the bad habit of suffering — the "second arrow."

Hi Oriana, thanks for your comment – quite beautiful – 'my memory, which doesn't seem to have a past tense' … there certainly is a kind of suffering that's a bad habit, a self-maintained endlessly running circuit that we can learn to unplug…I'm glad that you did!